Bidder buys all Muhlenberg items in Pa. auction

November 15, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An auction house in Philadelphia says one bidder has ensured that all items from the Muhlenberg family that were up for sale, including a rare flag from the Revolutionary War, will remain together.

Freeman's auction house says the unnamed bidder paid more than $646,000 Wednesday night for all 27 lots from a descendant of the Muhlenberg family, one of the most prominent German-American families of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Freeman's said the collection includes "an extensive manuscript archive" of the family from the Revolutionary War period through the Civil War.

The 41-by-45-inch battle flag from the Eighth Virginia Regiment under the command of Col. Peter Muhlenberg went for $422,500.

The auction house said the collection will now be part of an important private collection of Revolutionary War materials.